The Economic Contributions of Hyman Minsky
Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Reform
Financial economist Hyman P. Minsky believed that because there are many types of capitalism determined by circumstances and an evolving
set of institutional structures, an abstract economic theory could not be applicable in all times and places but
must be institution-specific. Therefore, he focused his attention on the changing institutional structure of
developed capitalist economies in the 20th century.
Minsky refused to accept the interpretation of Keynes that was being popularized in the 1950s by Alvin
Hansen and others. He saw this version of Keynesianism as flawed because it was almost a mechanistic use of
countercyclical fiscal policy that ignored the role of uncertainty and finance in the complex capitalist economic
system. In the first of several papers examining Minsky’s contributions, Executive Director Dimitri B.
Papadimitriou and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray assess Minsky’s integration of post-Keynesian theory with
an institutionalist appreciation for the varieties of past, current, and feasible future economic institutions.